1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to grinders and more particularly, to such a grinder, which automatically opens/closes the ground powder discharging outlets subject to the operation status.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are two different types of spice grinders available on the market, i.e., the manual type and the electric type. When grains or pieces of spice are put into a grinder, it is manually or electrically operated to grind the grains or pieces into powder for direct sprinkling onto food or soup. These grinders are quite popular among users for the advantage of instant grinding. Taiwan Patent No. 415215 (equivalent to U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,384), issued to the present inventor, discloses a similar design. According to this design, the grinder comprises a housing, a transmission shaft, a grinding unit, a particle size adjusting device, and a driving device. This design is functional, however it still has drawbacks. Before putting the material to be ground into the housing, the user must remove the driving device from the housing. This operation manner is inconvenient. Therefore, an improvement is necessary.
The aforesaid prior grinder can perform the basic functions of powder grinding job. However, the ground powder may stay at the clearance of the grinding unit, support frame of the adjustment device or the discharge outlet. When put the grinder on a table or sink at this time, residual ground powder may fall from the grinder to contaminate the surface of the table or sink upon accidental vibration of the grinder, and a further cleaning will be necessary. The present inventor invented an improved design entitled “Shut device for a discharge outlet in a grinder” under Taiwan Patent No. 592113 (equivalent to U.S. Pat. No. 6,880,773). The shut device comprises a stationary part disposed at the bottom of the grinder, and a rotary part. Once the rotary part is turned, hollow openings of the rotary part can align with the discharge outlet for ground powder falling down or stop plates of the rotary part close the discharge outlet for preventing the powder from falling down. Further, the stationary part and the rotary part are conveniently detachable for cleaning, eliminating the non-detachable drawback of the axial connection cap of the prior art design.
The aforesaid shut device is functional in closing/opening the discharge outlet of the grinder. However, the user may forget to adjust the shut device to the open position before using the grinder. In this case, ground powder may be accumulated in the gap between the discharge outlet and the shut device. Therefore, an improvement is still necessary.